Support



Oct. 8,1946. v. M. ABERNETHY 2,408,719 SUPPORT Filed Oct. 1, 1945 Patented Oct. 8, 1946 V SUPPORT Y Vardy M..Abernethy, Forest City C. r 1 Application October 1, 1945,;seria1 No. 619,545

. 1' This invention relates to a support, and more especially to a support adapted to suspend scaffolds and the like fromthe rafters or other beams in a building; said support having means which, by the weight applied to the support, serves to embed a pair of prongs into the rafter and whereby the greater the downward pull applied to the support, the greater the gripping action it will exert upon the rafter or; beam from which it is suspended. A I

Heretofore, in painting and otherwise repairing the interior ofbuildings, it has been quite a, problem tosuspenda scaffold in close proximity to the underneathside of the roof for appl ying a coat of paint to the rafters and the sheeting supported by the rafters. It has been the custom to bore holes in the roof and suspend rods, .pipes and thelike from the top surface of the roof for supporting a painting scaffold below the interior surface of the roof. Then, after the painting job is completed, it has been necessary to repair the roof, thus resulting in leaks occurring at these repair points.

It is an object of this invention ,to provide a support and whereby a plurality of these supports can be provided for engaging a plurality of the rafters or roof-supporting beams of the building for supporting a. scaffold near the lower end or ends of the supports and whereby the weight of the scaffold will cause the prongs on the upper end of these supports to embed themselves in the sides of the rafters and weight applied to the scaffold will cause these prongs to sink more deeply into the rafter, thus insuring a hold upon the rafters which will not, under any circumstances, come loose until all weight is removed from the support and, when all weight is removed from the supports, they are easily removed from the rafters to which they have been aflixed.

It is another object of this invention to provide a support adapted to engage opposed sides of roof-supporting beams, such as rafters and the like, and whereby the support has a pair of pivoted prongs on its upper end so that where the rafter is out of reach, the support can be inserted against one side of the rafter, that is one prong can be placed against one side of the rafter and a slight downward and lateral pull will cause the otherprong to engage the opposed side of the rafter and a'further application of weight or downward pull to the support will cause the points of the prongs to embed themselves in the sides of the rafter to firmly secure the supports thereto, each of said supports having a hook on its lower end for receiving a scantling for sup- 1 Claim. (01. 36pm) I porting scaffolding and the like.

The supports can also be suspended from I-beams.

- :Some of the objects of the invention having been'stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

, i ure l-is' a front elevation of one of the supports showing it ready to be attached to a rafter orbeam'in a building;-

Figure 2 is a sideelevation of the support shown in -Figure 1, omitting .the beam, and looking at theleft handside of Figure 1; Figure-3 is an enlarged detailed view of the upper-portion of Figure l and showing the prongs supports ofiour supports secured to the rafters of the roofof a building and showing the scafvfold supported thereby.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, the numeral It] indicates an elongated pipe, rod and the like which has a conventional coupling ll threadably or otherwise secured on the lower end thereof. mounted on the pipe l0 and has an outwardly and upwardly projecting prong l3 secured thereto by welding or otherwise, said prong being adapted to support a suitable scantling such as l4 indicated in Figure 4. There are usually four of these supports secured in a quadrangle and a proximate supports with a floor [5 being adapted to be laid thereon to serve as a scaffold.

The upper portion of the pipes I0 has slidably mounted thereon a sleeve 66 which is limited in its downward movement by a pin l1 suitably secured in the pipe Ill and projecting outwardly therefrom. This sleeve I6 has a pair of, outwardly and oppositely projecting prongs l8 and I9 tothe outer end of which are pivoted as at 20 and 2| the lower ends of dogs 22 and 23 which are pivoted as at 24 and 25 to the outer ends of links 26 and'ZT. These links have a plurality of holes 28 and 29, respectively, therein, in any one of which, the pivot bolts 24 and 25 may be mounted. These bolts 24 and 25 penetrate one of the holes 28 or 29 in the links 26 and 21 and also penetrate a suitable hole through the intermediate portion of the dogs 22 and 23.

The proximate ends of links 26 and ZIare pivoted as at 34 to the upper end of pipe'lll. The upper ends of the dogs 22 and 23 have pointed portions 30 and 3| which are adapted to be embedded in a beam such as rafters 32 which are adapted to support sheeting 33 of the roof of a A sleeve I2 is rotatably and slida'bly end of the pipe in and project the support up to where, say, one of th prongs 30 or 3| engages one side of the rafter.

By a downward and lateral pull exerted on the pipe IS, the pipe I i] will slide downwardly in sleeve Hi and this will pull the inner ends of the links 25 and 21 downwardly which will cause the points 38 and SI to both engage and become embedded in the opposed surfaces of the rafters 32. When sufficient weight has been applied to the supports to cause them to be firmly embedded in the sides of the rafter, then the sleeve l2 can be rotated to the proper position to receive the scantlings r beams i4 and a suitable floor [5 can be supported by the beams or scantlings l4.

These pipes it can be any desired length, that is of a length to support a man so he can reach the roof structur comprising rafters 32 and 33, or, if desired, to use and support another object a much greater distance below the roof 33, then thesepipes Hi can be of any desired length to provide a scaffold or support at any desired distance below the roof structure. For example, one or more of these supports could be attached to the rafters or other cross beams in a building and a I suitable hoist could be attached to the lower ends thereof and it could serve as a support for a hoist, or overhead machinery, or for a variety of uses.

In the drawing and specification there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific term are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only, and not for purposes of limitation, th scope of the invention being defined in the claim.

I claim:

A support adapted to be secured to opposed sides of a rafter or other beam in a building comprising an elongated shank, means on the lower end of the shank for supporting an object, a

I sleeve slidably mounted near the upper end of the shank, a'pair of dogs having their lower ends pivotally secured to opposed sides of the sleeve,

La pair of links'pivotally secured to the upper endof the shank at one end and having their other ends pivotally secured to an intermediate portion of said dogs, the upper ends of the dogs being turned inwardly and pointed towards each other and terminating in a sharp point and being adapted to engage and embed themselves in opposed sides of the beam when applied to a beam and downward pressure is applied to the shank, a stop on the shank to limit downward movement of the sleeve, said sleeve normally resting by gravity on said stop to cause the pointed ends of said dogs to be widely separated, lateral pressure on the shank serving to embed the pointed upper end of one of the dogs in one side of the rafter or beam so that a slight downward pull on the shank will move the pointed end of the other dog against the other side of the rafter or beam, and further downward pressure on the shank will embed the pointed ends of both dogs further in the rafter or beam.

VARDY M. ABERNETHY. 

